Salle Ventadour
| Salle Ventadour | |
|---|---|
The Salle Ventadour as an opera house
in the mid 19th century. |
|
| Alternative names |
|
| General information | |
| Type |
opera house offices (after 1878) |
| Location | rue Méhul 2nd arrondissement of Paris |
| Coordinates | 48°52′04″N 2°20′05″E / 48.8677°N 2.33485°ECoordinates: 48°52′04″N 2°20′05″E / 48.8677°N 2.33485°E |
| Current tenants | Banque de France |
| Construction started | 1826 |
| Inaugurated | 20 April 1829 |
| Cost | 4,620,000 francs |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Jacques-Marie Huvé |
| Other designers | de Guerchy |
The Salle Ventadour, a former Parisian theatre in the rue Neuve-Ventadour, now the rue Méhul (2nd arrondissement of Paris), was built between 1826 and 1829 for the Opéra-Comique, to designs by Jacques-Marie Huvé, a prominent architect. The original theatre had a capacity of 1,106, but was subsequently taken over by the Théâtre-Italien and expanded to a capacity of 1,295 in 1841, thereafter becoming perhaps most noteworthy as the theatre in which the majority of the operas of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi were first performed in France. When the Théâtre-Italien company went out of business in 1878, the theatre was converted to offices.
The Opéra-Comique first performed at the Salle Ventadour on 20 April 1829. The opening night audience was a distinguished one and found the new theatre luxurious and comfortable. The program included the one-act opera Les deux mousquetaires by Henri Montan Berton, the overture to Étienne Méhul's opera Le jeune Henri, and the three-act opera La fiancée with music by Daniel Auber and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. The Opéra-Comique presented 32 premieres during its time at the Salle Ventadour, including one of François-Adrien Boieldieu's last operas Les deux nuits on 20 May 1829, Auber's Fra Diavolo (as L'hôtellerie de Terracine) on 28 January 1830, and Ferdinand Hérold's Zampa on 3 May 1831. After 22 March 1832 the Opéra-Comique left the Salle Ventadour and moved to the Salle de la Bourse, where it opened on 24 September 1832.
The Salle Ventadour was reopened on 10 June 1834 as the Théâtre Nautique — "nautique" since some of the main attractions were works performed in a basin of water on the stage. The programs included the ballet-pantomime Les ondines, which was based on Fouqué's novella Undine, about a water sprite who marries a knight in order to save her soul, and used music from E. T. A. Hoffmann's opera of the same name; a full-length ballet William Tell with music by the German composer Jacques Strunz; a one-act ballet Le nouveau Robinson which also utilized the water; and a chinoiserie entitled Chao-Kang. These were interspersed with choruses by Carl Maria von Weber and others, sung by the members of a German company that was being formed in Paris at that time. The entr'acte was the overture to Weber's opera Oberon. The reviews were not good, and the size of the audience decreased over time.
...
Wikipedia